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Weekend Confirmed 105 - Journey, Mists of Pandaria, Mass Effect 3
by Garnett Lee, Mar 23, 2012 11:00am PDTAfter a long look at Mass Effect 3 last week, Jeff, Jeff, Andrea, and Garnett turn their attentions to Journey, the upcoming Mists of Pandaria expansion for World of Warcraft, and other games. However, they cannot ignore the interesting turn the controversy over the ending of Mass Effect 3 took with BioWare co-founder Dr. Ray Muzyka directly addressing fans to promise them "clarity" and "closure" through new content the team will create. We also catch up on the announcement of an Epic Mickey sequel along the way to wrapping up with Finishing Moves.
Weekend Confirmed Ep. 105: 03/23/2012
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Weekend Confirmed comes in four segments to make it easy to listen to in segments or all at once. Here's the timing for this week's episode:
Show Breakdown:
Round 1 00:00:30 – 00:27:20
Whatcha Been Playing Part 1 00:27:56 – 00:56:50
Whatcha Been Playing Part 2 00:57:50 – 01:27:58
Listener Feedback/Front Page News 01:28:49 – 01:58:34
Jeff Cannata can also be seen on The Totally Rad Show. They've gone daily so there's a new segment to watch every day of the week!
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Garnett Lee @GarnettLee
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Jeff Mattas @JeffMattas
Andrea Rene @andrearene
For our listeners in or near Los Angeles - Double Jump (The show Christian Spicer and Jeff Cannata are putting on) is at the Upright Citizens Brigade Theatre on Saturday, March 24th. Check our show notes for more info and the link where you can purchase tickets. People can get tickets online at:
http://losangeles.ucbtheatre.com/shows/view/3042
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Original music in the show by Del Rio. Get his latest Album, The Wait is Over on iTunes. Check out more, including the Super Mega Worm mix and other mash-ups on his ReverbNation page or Facebook page, and follow him on twitter delriomusic.
Comments
I'm writing this post from the point of view of someone who takes the "Shepard Indoctrination" theory to be the actual intended interpretation of ME3s ending. For anyone not familiar with this theory, watch this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ythY_GkEBck
I don't want this thread to be about the actual meaning of ME3s ending, so lets just pretend for the sake of argument that the Indoctrination theory is definitely accurate and correct.
In my opinion, Mass Effect 3's ending was an absolutely brilliant, subtle, and powerful piece of interactive storytelling. The fact that the player is put directly into Shepard's shoes when it comes to facing the Reaper's final deception is a testament to the potential for gaming to deliver unique dramatic experiences.
And yet..... almost almost nobody noticed. Despite my deep absorbtion into the story and universe of Mass Effect, I was too busy "playing the game" to notice the dozens of hints and clues littered throughout ME3. When I got to the ending, I was too busy waiting for an "LT" or "RT" prompt on the screen to really consider what I was seeing.
"Why is the VI taking the form of the little boy from my dreams?"
"Why did shooting Anderson cause me to bleed?"
"Why is Hacket saying that all alliance troops have been wiped out even as I walk towards the beam?"
I noticed all of these strange elements, but the "gameplay" portion of my brain overpowered my ability to try to figure out what I was seeing. On top of that, there is a laundry list of hints and clues that I dind't even notice at all....
The "dream trees" appearing around me as I walked towards the beam,
Shep's eyes glowing "Indoctrenation Blue" after I made my final choice,
James asking about the "low rumbling sound" on the Normandy,
the reversed use of reneagade and paragon colors to try and influence your decision,
the fact that 2 out of the 3 final choices are the same paths taken by Saren and the Illusive Man.....
I completely missed all these details. These are the kind of details I'm sure I would have noticed had I been watching a film or TV show, but in a videogame they went right over my head. And I think its safe to say these details went over most people's heads.
We constantly ask for deeper, more complex, and more subtle stories from developers. But when we are given one, most of us are too distracted to notice. Part of me thinks that Bioware should have made the meaning of ME3s ending more obviouse... more aparant. But that would defeat part of what makes it so brilliant to me. Spelling out Shepard's indoctrination would make the Reaper's trap completely transparent. The sequence would lose all poigniency. In other words, I think the ending is brilliant BECAUSE it fooled me. But I wouldn't even have realized that I'd been fooled if the hints hadn't been pointed out to me by others.
So: How do developers give us what we want? How do you tell a story with subtlty and depth when most of the audience isn't really paying close attention?
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